4 Simple Ways to Create Better Images for Your Website
The internet would be incredibly dull without visuals, don’t you think? Images and colorful graphics bring a website to life and attract viewers’ eyes exactly where you want. Plus, an image is enough to tell a powerful story.In today’s fast-paced world, very few people stop to read a text without being first attracted by an intriguing image or visual. As part of a website, images have two main roles. First, they break the text and make the pages more visually appealing for the readers. Second, the images you use and how you use them are crucial for SEO purposes.And yet, not every image is a good fit for your website. To make a positive impact on your viewers, you need quality, professional-looking images that load fast and tell the story of your brand.Sounds a bit too complicated? No worries; we have a few tips to help you create better images for your website!
1. Use Your Own Images
Today’s savvy internet user shows a preference for real images as opposed to stock images. That’s because real images take more effort to create and allow you a higher degree of creativity and freedom in how you use them. However, if you work with a professional photographer, the cost of one photo session may be a bit outside your budget.Still, if you know a little bit about how to take a good photo, you may not have to work with a professional from the start. For instance, it’s important to use good lighting so that the subject is in focus and easy to see. Also, it’s good to always follow The Rule of Thirds.
2. Remove the Background to Make Logos and Icons Transparent
Logos, icons, and other visuals used to represent your brand look more professional when they have a transparent background. Still, background removal is not as easy as it seems and it usually implies the use of a professional tool (which can be expensive and difficult to learn how to use).Luckily, there is a better way! You can delete a background using BeFunky - it literally takes a few clicks and you’re done.
3. Use a Theme
When you’re learning how to market your startup, you’ll notice that consistency is crucial. When you are consistent with your imagery across all communication channels, people have the chance to learn your branding and associate it with a certain feeling.Well, this feeling is created by the theme you promote using images. Let’s take a travel website as an example. To inspire a sense of adventure and a longing for exploration, all their images will be of stunning landscapes with mesmerized people admiring the view.Also, you’ll notice you can rarely see people’s faces in these images - this is on purpose so the viewer can focus on the landscape and not the people.
4. Optimize for Speed
While you may be tempted to use high-resolution images, your SEO people will definitely have objections. That’s because page loading speed is important for viewers’ experience and Google tends to favor websites that load fast (especially for mobile devices).So, when uploading images on your website, you have to find the right balance between quality and size (high-res images are large in size). For instance, the best size for a file used on a web page is 125 KB (but it can go a bit higher). Also, the ideal image size for a blog post is 795×300 pixels, and you can get away with a resolution of 92dpi for most monitors. Of course, you can go higher than any of these, but you have to test your page’s loading speed as well.
Key Takeaways
Overall, real images are a better fit for branding campaigns than stock images, clear backgrounds look more professional, and you have to think about the theme of your images while also optimizing for speed.
